Anastasia Production Crew (1997)

This photo of the 316 members of the Fox Animation Studio staff was taken sometime around the middle of the ANASTASIA production (early 1997). It was very international, with about half of the new crew representing 14 countries. We had brought about 65 trained animation artists including artists and technicians from Ireland, plus many other internationals from Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, East Germany, England, Germany, Greece, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines and Spain…plus our veteran American animators.

The other half, were mainly chosen from submitted portfolios and animation inbetween tests of some of the 17,000 applicants from around the world. There were many Arizona college graduates, and others from out of state. Just as we had encountered with our first crew of 100 animation artists for The Secret of NIMH, with 45 cel- painters, picking up animation scenes to paint at their homes, and the crew we put together to train Irish artists the animation process and growing that studio to 400 artists technicians, supervisors, accountants, executives and even a lawyer, and in the end it always became a huge extended family. Working weekends and nights, often artist’s children would share their cubical and sit on the floor with crayons and a coloring book or doing homework, reading etc. It was another great crew; hardworking, creative, dedicated, persistent at getting better every week. What great memories we have.